Just played my first game and was a little unclear about items and spells that have a +3/6/9 to combat. Do they add to the total amount of dice you roll or to the totals of each individual die? I played it that they added to the total dice rolled since that seemed to make the most sense but it also made combat with monsters a little easy.

You're absolutely correct ~ the + to Combat Checks apply to the number of dice rolled. Thus, if you're casting Wither (+3 to Combat Checks) and you currently have your Skill slider for a 3 Fight, you would roll 9 dice. From the 9 dice you would add dice, in the case of Cultists or Maniacs and deduct dice for **** near everything else. Remember that you're rolling the Combat Check after a successful or failed and survived Horror Check.

...make that '6' dice...math after 10:00 p,m, bad, even for the Professor

Ok thanks a bunch. The only other thing that has given me any other real trouble is monster movement. Can monsters move to locations or do they just go around the streets? i.e Uptown/Downtown etc. Does The Hound of Tindalous just automatically move to a location with an investigator regardless of distance?

Normal and Fast monsters will essentially roam the streets. They won't go back into unstable locations once they leave (because they're following the arrows). Likewise, Flying monster movement revolves mostly around moving to the street.

Only special monsters like the Hound, or expansion movement types (stalking and aquatic) will allow a monster to enter a location.

When the Hound moves, he moves instantly to the closest (i.e. fewest number of spaces) investigator in a location other than the Hospital or Asylum. If there are multiple investigators tied for closest, the First Player decides where the Hound moves. If there are no legal targets for the Hound, it'll remain where it is.

Are any of the encounter cards optional in their effect or are they all mandatory? Some of them say "If you decided to do so..."

Also what happens if a clue token is supposed to be placed on a location with a gate.

If encounter cards use "you may" or similar wording, it's a choice. If a clue token is supposed to be placed on a location that currently has a gate on it no clue is placed there.

I'm pretty sure I'm right, someone will correct me if not

Tibs said:

If the Hound moves, and there are two investigators tied, doesn't it check for the lowest sneak score first? Or does that only apply to flyers, stalkers, and aquatic?

DoomTurtle said:

Yes. If their Sneak value is the same, then the first player chooses.

Brine said:

I actually don't think the Sneak tiebreaker rule is official with Hounds. Not that there's anything wrong with playing that way though.

Tibs said:

FAQ to the rescue!

Q: Who determines where a Hound of Tindalos moves if two investigators are tied in being nearest to the hound?
A: As per the rules governing flying monsters, the hound will go after the investigator with the lower Sneak value. In case of a tie, the first player chooses.

Awesome! Thanks for that. I will now happily apply the rule liberally to all relevant monsters (Hunting Horror, for example). Clearly, Sneak-tiebreaker was the intent from the start.

Tibs said:

::Laughter:: Tibs, you just got FAQed ;'D